Linking a user selected sequence of received World Wide Web documents into a stored document string available to the user at a receiving web station

ABSTRACT

Enabling the user to link a selected sequence of hypertext World Wide Web (Web) documents into a string and to store the string at his receiving Web display station so that these documents will be available for his use. An implementation at a receiving display station is provided for designating a received Web document as a starter document and for selecting a subsequently received Web document as a first next document. An implementation is provided for creating a hyperlink in the starter document to the first next document, together with means for storing said starter and next documents at said receiving display station.

This is a Continuation of application Ser. No. 09/714,725 filed on Nov.16, 2000.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to computer managed communication networkssuch as the World Wide Web (Web) and, particularly, to systems,processes and programs for reducing users' time spent in accessing andbrowsing through numerous Web documents which may be of possibleinterest to the user.

BACKGROUND OF RELATED ART

The past decade has been marked by a technological revolution driven bythe convergence of the data processing industry with the consumerelectronics industry. The effect has, in turn, driven technologies whichhave been known and available but relatively quiescent over the years. Amajor one of these technologies is the Internet or Web relateddistribution of documents, media and programs. The convergence of theelectronic entertainment and consumer industries with data processingexponentially accelerated the demand for wide ranging communicationdistribution channels, and the Web or Internet, which had quietlyexisted for over a generation as a loose academic and government datadistribution facility, reached “critical mass” and commenced a period ofphenomenal expansion. With this expansion, businesses and consumers havedirect access to all matter of documents, media and computer programs.

In addition, Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), which had been thedocumentation language of the Internet or Web for years, offered directhyperlinks between Web pages embedded in such Web pages. This evenfurther exploded the use of the Internet or Web. It was now possible forthe Web browser or wanderer to spend literally hours going throughdocument after document in often less than productive excursions throughthe Web. These excursions often strained the users' time and resources.A significant source of this drain is in the Web page itself (the basicdocument page of the Web).

Web documents or pages have hyperlinks setting forth terms and topicswhich the user may interactively click on or select to access other Webdocuments which, in turn, respectively have their own hyperlinksselectable by the user to access the next Web documents. Thus, browsingthrough Web documents often involves the time consuming process offollowing a thread of hyperlinked Web documents through several levelsof hyperlinks, then backing up to a Web document at an earlier level,selecting another hyperlink in that document and then following anotherthread of hyperlinked documents through several levels.

Web developers and users are continually seeking implementations to makethis Web document browsing process less cumbersome and more userfriendly. At present, there are many effective browsing routines bywhich the user may backtrack through where he has been and passedthrough in his navigation in the Web in a particular session. Whilethese approaches certainly do help the user in relocating Web pages anddocuments of interest and particular hyperlinks on these pages ofinterest, they still require that the user spend considerable time goingthrough documents in the backtracked sequence which are of little nointerest. It should also be considered that the organization of Webpages and their hyperlinks are based upon what is of universal or globaluser interest. On the other hand, the particular user's interests may bequite specific and not follow any universal logic.

SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

The present invention addresses the browsing user's particular needs inbrowsing through the Web by enabling the user to link a selectedsequence of hypertext Web documents into a string and to store thestring at his receiving Web display station so that these documents willbe available for his use.

In its broadest aspects, the invention involves the combination of meansat a receiving display station for designating a received Web documentas a starter document, and means for selecting a subsequently receivedWeb document as a first next document. Means are provided for creating ahyperlink in said starter document to said first next document, togetherwith means for storing said starter and next documents at said receivingdisplay station.

The invention further provides for an extension of the selecteddocuments into a string through means for selecting one or moresubsequently received Web documents as a subsequent next documents andmeans for creating a hyperlink in said first next document to thesubsequent next document. The subsequent next documents are also storedat the receiving display station to thereby store a selected string oflinked Web documents. Preferably, each hyperlink to a next document isvisually distinct from other hyperlinks in its document, e.g. thehyperlink may be highlighted.

The invention also provides means for changing the order of the sequenceof next documents in said string.

The present invention may be conveniently implemented in the browserserving the receiving display station which includes the above-mentionedmeans for designating a received Web document as a starter document; themeans for selecting a subsequently received Web document as a first nextdocument; the means for creating a hyperlink in said starter document tosaid first next document; the means for selecting at least onesubsequently received Web document as a subsequent next document; andthe means for creating a hyperlink in said first next document to saidsubsequent next document.

The starter and next documents, and said subsequent next documents, aremost conveniently stored in permanent storage rather than a temporarycache associated with the Web browser at said receiving display station.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be better understood and its numerous objectsand advantages will become more apparent to those skilled in the art byreference to the following drawings, in conjunction with theaccompanying specification, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a data processing system including acentral processing unit and network connections via a communicationsadapter which is capable of implementing the receiving display stationon which the Web documents are selectively strung together throughcreated additional hyperlinks in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a generalized diagrammatic view of a Web portion upon whichthe present invention may be implemented;

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic view of a Web page and a selected subsequentpage displayed at a receiving display station showing the originalhyperlinks in each page;

FIG. 4 is the diagrammatic view of FIG. 3 illustrating how the two pagesof FIG. 3 may be selectively strung together into respective starter andfirst next Web documents;

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic view illustrative of a selected string of threeWeb documents;

FIG. 6 is a diagrammatic view showing how the order of the threedocuments in the string of FIG. 5 may be changed;

FIG. 7 is an illustrative flowchart describing the setting up of theprocess of the present invention for dynamically creating a selectedstring of hyperlinked received Web documents; and

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of an illustrative run of the process set up inFIG. 7.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIG. 1, a typical data processing terminal is shown whichmay function as the Web display stations used for receiving Web pages,for Web browsing and for creating a string of selected received Webdocuments.

A central processing unit (CPU) 10, such as one of the PCmicroprocessors or workstations, e.g. RISC System/6000™ (RS/6000) seriesavailable from International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), isprovided and interconnected to various other components by system bus12. An operating system 41 runs on CPU 10, provides control and is usedto coordinate the function of the various components of FIG. 1.Operating system 41 may be one of the commercially available operatingsystems such as the AIX 6000™ operating system available from IBM;Microsoft's Windows98™ or WindowsNT™, as well as UNIX and AIX operatingsystems. Application programs 40, controlled by the system, are movedinto and out of the main memory Random Access Memory (RAM) 14. Theseprograms include the programs of the present invention for creating astring of selected received Web documents to be subsequently describedin combination with any conventional Web browser, such as the NetscapeNavigator 3.0™ or Microsoft's Internet Explorer™. A Read Only Memory(ROM) 16 is connected to CPU 10 via bus 12 and includes the BasicInput/Output System (BIOS) that controls the basic computer functions.RAM 14, I/O adapter 18 and communications adapter 34 are alsointerconnected to system bus 12. I/O adapter 18 may be a Small ComputerSystem Interface (SCSI) adapter that communicates with the disk storagedevice 20. Communications adapter 34 interconnects bus 12 with anoutside network enabling the data processing system to communicate withother such systems over a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide AreaNetwork (WAN), which includes, of course, the Web or Internet. Web andInternet are meant to be generally interchangeable terms and are so usedin the present description of the distribution network. I/O devices arealso connected to system bus 12 via user interface adapter 22 anddisplay adapter 36. Keyboard 24 and mouse 26 are all interconnected tobus 12 through user interface adapter 22. It is through such inputdevices that the user may interactively relate to Web pages. Displayadapter 36 includes a frame buffer 39, which is a storage device thatholds a representation of each pixel on the display screen 38. Imagesmay be stored in frame buffer 39 for display on monitor 38 throughvarious components; such as a digital to analog converter (not shown)and the like. By using the aforementioned I/O devices, a user is capableof inputting information to the system through the keyboard 24 or mouse26 and receiving output information from the system via display 38.

Before going further into the details of specific embodiments, it willbe helpful to understand from a more general perspective the variouselements and methods which may be related to the present invention.Since the major aspect of the present invention is directed to Web pagestransmitted over global networks, such as the Web or Internet, anunderstanding of networks and their operating principles would behelpful. We will not go into great detail in describing the networks towhich the present invention is applicable. For details on Web nodes,objects and links, reference is made to the text, Mastering theInternet, G. H. Cady et al., published by Sybex Inc., Alameda, Calif.,1996; or the text, Internet: The Complete Reference, Millennium Edition,Margaret Young et al., Osborne/McGraw-Hill, Berkeley, Calif., 1999. Anydata communication system which interconnects or links computercontrolled systems with various sites defines a communications network.Of course, the Internet or Web is a global network of a heterogeneousmix of computer technologies and operating systems. Higher level objectsare linked to the lower level objects in the hierarchy through a varietyof network server computers.

Web documents are conventionally implemented in HTML language, which isdescribed in detail in the text entitled Just Java, van der Linden,1997, SunSoft Press, particularly at Chapter 7, pp. 249-268, dealingwith the handling of Web pages; and also in the above-referencedMastering the Internet, particularly pp. 637-642, on HTML in theformation of Web pages.

In addition, aspects of this invention will involve Web browsers. Ageneral and comprehensive description of browsers may be found in theabove mentioned Mastering the Internet text at pp. 291-313. Moredetailed browser descriptions may be found in the above-mentionedInternet: The Complete Reference, Millennium Edition text at Chapter 19,pp. 419-454, on the Netscape Navigator; Chapter 20, pp. 455-494, on theMicrosoft Internet Explorer; and Chapter 21, pp. 495-512, covering Lynx,Opera and other browsers.

A generalized diagram of a portion of the Web, to which the computercontrolled display terminal 57 used for Web page receiving duringsearching or browsing, is connected as shown in FIG. 2. Computer displayterminal 57 may be implemented by the computer system set up in FIG. 1and connection 58 (FIG. 2) is the network connection shown in FIG. 1.For purposes of the present embodiment, computer 57 serves as a Webdisplay station and has received displayed Web page 56, which is one ofa sequence of Web pages containing an embedded hyperlink to other Webpages.

Reference may be made to the above-mentioned Mastering the Internet, pp.136-147, for typical connections between local display stations to theWeb via network servers, any of which may be used to implement thesystem on which this invention is used. The system embodiment of FIG. 2has a host-dial connection. Such host-dial connections have been in usefor over 30 years through network access servers 53 which are linked 61to the Web 50. The servers 53 may be maintained by a service provider tothe client's display terminal 57. The host's server 53 is accessed bythe client terminal 57 through a normal dial-up telephone linkage 58 viamodem 54, telephone line 55 and modem 52. The HTML file representativeof the Web page 56 has been downloaded to display terminal 57 throughWeb access server 53 via the telephone line linkages from server 53,which may have accessed them from the Internet 50 via linkage 61. TheWeb browser program 59 operates within the display terminals 57 tocontrol the communication with the Web access server 53 to therebydownload and display the accessed Web pages 56 on terminal 57. The Webaccess server 53 uses any search engines to access via the Web 50 andobtain Web documents from appropriate Web resources such as databases60, 62 and 63.

With this setup, the present invention, which will be subsequentlydescribed in greater detail with respect to FIGS. 3 through 6, may becarried out using Web browser 59 and associated permanent storagefacility 51 (FIG. 2) to form and store a string of user selected Webdocuments including starter document 47, first next document 49 and nextsubsequent document 48.

It should be stressed that the string should be stored in a permanentstorage facility such as the disk drive storage of the receiving displaystation rather than the browser cache which is temporary storage. Thestorage of the selected string of Web documents in permanent storageprovides the user with a set of Web documents in their original form.This is in contrast to other forms of Web document saving, such asbookmarking, which may provide the Web documents in changed or upgradedform when needed or the whole Web document may become no longeravailable. With current Web technology, documents are frequently changedon an hourly basis or even minute to minute. An advantage of the presentinvention is that the received and stored documents in the string arepreserved in their original form.

FIG. 3 is an illustration of two displayed Web documents which the userdecides to selectively put into the document string. Standard Webdocument 70, which the user has received over the Web at a receivingdisplay station, contains text as well as standard hyperlinks 71 toother Web documents. When the user selects one of the hyperlinks byclicking on it, the browser program accesses the linked document fromthe Web through the document's URL and displays the accessed Webdocument. Thus, the user, with the aid of his browser, navigates throughthe Internet through the standard hyperlinks in received Web documents.

Now, in accordance with the present invention, when the user obtains aWeb document in which he has a particular interest, he may wish to starta string of Web documents of his particular interests. The browser menubar is modified to include the selectable item 65 [START STRING]. Theselected document will be downloaded and stored in cache 51, FIG. 2. Asthe user continues to browse, the menu bar in subsequently received Webdocuments will now include item 66 [STRING/NEXT], as in document 72,which has standard hyperlinks 73. There can only be one starter documentin a string. Thus, once a starter document is selected, all subsequentlyselected documents are next documents in the string.

Now assuming that document 72 is selected as the first next document inthe string as shown in FIG. 4, then a special string hyperlink 74 willappear in starter document 70 to indicate a hyperlink to the first nextdocument; in the present example, Web document 72. The string hyperlink74 should be visually distinct from the other standard hyperlinks 71 sothat it will stand out. It may be highlighted. Dashed line 75diagrammatically shows the hyperlink from link 74 in starter Webdocument 70 to first next document 72 in the string. Document 72 is alsostored in storage 51.

FIG. 5 illustrates a string of selected Web documents formed asdescribed above. In addition to Web documents 70 and 72, the stringincludes subsequent next document 77 which is strung through hyperlink76 in first next document 72 via diagrammatic string 79. Document 77includes a string hyperlink 78 which is shown connected via stringhyperlink 78 via path 69 to the next subsequent documents in the string.Path 69 is shown as broken to indicate and include any reasonable numberof selected Web documents linked as described above.

The invention includes the capability of changing the order of the Webdocuments in the string. In doing so, for example, the string ofdocuments shown in FIG. 5 may be displayed as shown in FIG. 5. Then,FIG. 6, the user may interactively move the documents to change theorder through mouse controlled cursors 82 and 83 which respectively movedocuments 72 and 77 through the paths 81 and 80 to change the order.Once the user interactive move is completed, the system will note thechange in string Web documents' order and reorder the hyperlinks fromlinks 76 and 78 to reflect the change.

It should also be noted that once a string of Web documents has beenstored at a Web receiving location, such as in storage 51 associatedwith receiving Web station 57, that station may be provided as a Webpage source or resource for distributing the created string to otherstations on the Web.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the development of a process according tothe present invention for selectively linking and storing a string ofreceived Web documents. Most of the programming functions in the processof FIG. 7 have already been described in general with respect to FIGS. 3through 6. A Web browser is provided at a receiving display station onthe Web for accessing Web pages in the conventional manner and loadingthem at the display station, step 84. The browser has the capability ofdesignating a received Web document as a starter document in a string.The browser also has the capability of designating a subsequentlyreceived Web document as the first next document, step 85. The browseris provided with the capability of creating a hyperlink in the starterdocument to the first next document, which link is visually distinctfrom the standard hyperlinks in the starter, step 86. The browser isprovided with the further capability of selecting one or moresubsequently received Web documents as subsequent next documents, step87. The browser is also provided with the capability of creating ahyperlink in the first next document to the following subsequent nextdocument and hyperlinks in each of the plurality of subsequent nextdocuments to their following subsequent next documents in the string,step 88. Storage is provided for storing the document string, step 89.Also, the browser is provided with the capability of changing the orderof the documents in the string, step 90.

The running of the process setup in FIG. 7 and described in connectionwith FIGS. 3 through 6 will now be described with respect to theflowchart of FIG. 8. Let us assume that we are in a Web browsing sessionthrough the browser. The flowchart represents some steps in a routinewhich will illustrate the operation of the invention. The browseraccesses the Web documents. First, a determination is made as to whethera Web document is received, step 91. If No, the process is returned tostep 91 and a Web document is awaited. If Yes, a Web document isreceived, the document is displayed, step 92. Then, a determination ismade as to whether the document has been selected as a starter documentfor a string, step 93. If No, then the process is returned to step 91and the next Web document is awaited. If the decision from step 93 isYes, then the document is stored as a string starter document, step 94.Then, a determination is made, step 95, as to whether a Web document isreceived. It No, then the process is returned to step 95 and the nextWeb document is awaited. If Yes, a Web document is received, thedocument is displayed, step 96. Then a determination is made as towhether the document has been selected as a next document for thestring, step 97. If No, then the process is returned to step 91 and thenext Web document is awaited. If the decision from step 97 is Yes, thenthe document is stored as the first next document and a hyperlink to itis created in the starter document, step 98.

Then, a determination is made, step 99, as to whether a Web document isreceived. If No, then the process is returned to step 99 and the nextWeb document is awaited. If Yes, a Web document is received, thedocument is displayed, step 100. Then a determination is made as towhether the document has been selected as a next document for thestring, step 101. If No, then the process is returned to step 99 and thenext Web document is awaited. If the decision from step 101 is Yes, thenthe document is stored as a next document and a hyperlink to it iscreated in the previous document, step 102. Then, step 103, all of thelinked documents in the string are stored in the receiving stationstorage. At this time, a determination may be conveniently made as towhether the session is to be ended. If Yes, the session is exited. IfNo, then after each next received document the process is returned viabranch “A” to step 99 where the next received Web document is awaited.

One of the preferred implementations of the present invention is inapplication program 40, i.e. a browser program made up of programmingsteps or instructions resident in RAM 14, FIG. 1, of a Web receivingstation during various Web operations. Until required by the computersystem, the program instructions may be stored in another readablemedium, e.g. in disk drive 20 or in a removable memory, such as anoptical disk for use in a CD ROM computer input or in a floppy disk foruse in a floppy disk drive computer input. Further, the programinstructions may be stored in the memory of another computer prior touse in the system of the present invention and transmitted over a LAN ora WAN, such as the Web itself, when required by the user of the presentinvention. One skilled in the art should appreciate that the processescontrolling the present invention are capable of being distributed inthe form of computer readable media of a variety of forms.

Although certain preferred embodiments have been shown and described, itwill be understood that many changes and modifications may be madetherein without departing from the scope and intent of the appendedclaims.

What is claimed is:
 1. In a Web communication network with user accessvia a plurality of data processor controlled interactive receivingdisplay stations for displaying received hypertext documents of at leastone display page containing embedded hyperlinks to other hypertextdocuments accessible from sources on the Web, a system for enabling auser to link and store a sequence of selected hypertext documents, saidsystem comprising: a processor; a computer memory holding computerprogram instructions which when executed by the processor perform themethod comprising: designating a received Web document at a receivingdisplay station as a starter document; selecting a subsequently receivedWeb document as a first next document; creating a hyperlink in saidstarter document to said first next document; and storing said starterand next documents at said receiving display station.
 2. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the performed method further includes: selecting atleast one subsequently received Web document as a subsequent nextdocument; creating a hyperlink in said first next document to saidsubsequent next document; and also storing said subsequent next documentat said receiving display station, wherein a selected string of linkedWeb documents is stored.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein: a pluralityof subsequent next documents are selected; and said performed methodfurther includes creating in each subsequent next document a hyperlinkto the following subsequent next document in said string.
 4. The systemof claim 3, wherein said performed method further includes changing theorder of the sequence of next documents in said string.
 5. The system ofclaim 2, wherein said hyperlink to a next document is visually distinctfrom other hyperlinks in each document.
 6. The system of claim 5,wherein said hyperlink to a next document is highlighted.
 7. The systemof claim 2, wherein the perform method further includes a Web browsermethod operatively associated with said receiving display station, saidWeb browser includes: designating a received Web document at a receivingdisplay station as a starter document; selecting a subsequently receivedWeb document as a first next document; creating a hyperlink in saidstarter document to said first next document; selecting at least onesubsequently received Web document as a subsequent next document; andcreating a hyperlink in said first next document to said subsequent nextdocument.
 8. A computer usable non-transitory storage medium havingstored thereon a computer readable program for enabling a user to linkand store a sequence of selected hypertext documents in a Webcommunication network with user access via a plurality of data processorcontrolled interactive receiving display stations for displayingreceived hypertext documents of at least one display page containingembedded hyperlinks to other hypertext documents accessible from sourceson the Web, wherein the computer readable program when executed on acomputer causes the computer to: designate a received Web document at areceiving display station as a starter document; select a subsequentlyreceived Web document as a first next document; create a hyperlink insaid starter document to said first next document; and store saidstarter and next documents at said receiving display station.
 9. Thecomputer usable non-transitory storage medium of claim 8, wherein saidcomputer readable program when executed on a computer further causes thecomputer to: select at least one subsequently received Web document as asubsequent next document; create a hyperlink in said first next documentto said subsequent next document; and also store said subsequent nextdocument at said receiving display station, wherein a selected string oflinked Web documents is stored.
 10. The computer usable non-transitorystorage medium of claim 9, wherein: a plurality of subsequent nextdocuments are selected; and the computer readable program when executedon a computer further causes the computer to create in each subsequentnext document a hyperlink to the following subsequent next document insaid string.
 11. The computer usable non-transitory storage medium ofclaim 10, wherein said computer readable program when executed on acomputer further causes the computer to change the order of the sequenceof next documents in said string.
 12. The computer usable non-transitorystorage medium of claim 9, wherein said hyperlink to a next document isvisually distinct from other hyperlinks in each document.
 13. Thecomputer usable non-transitory storage medium of claim 12, wherein saidhyperlink to a next document is highlighted.
 14. The computer usablenon-transitory storage medium of claim 9, wherein said computer readableprogram further includes a Web browser program, said Web browser programwhen executed on a computer causes the computer to: designate a receivedWeb document at a receiving display station as a starter document;select a subsequently received Web document as a first next document;create a hyperlink in said starter document to said first next document;select at least one subsequently received Web document as a subsequentnext document; and create a hyperlink in said first next document tosaid subsequent next document.